in

Taylor Swift (left) with Shraddha Karlie Kloss Kapoor

Parineeti Chopra

Lorde (left) with Charli XCX at Alia Bhatt the 2014 MTV Movie Awards

Miley Cyrus

VIEWPOINT

names of designers.” But there is a reason we Our collective frown upon men in denim overalls—unless fear of ageing they’re Calvin Klein models—and little girls in Girl rising has made midriff-baring dresses. Fashion, if not style, has an age and station. On a recent visit to Accessorize with a friend the totems While much has been said about the shocking and her three-year-old daughter, I was asked by and motifs of sexualisation of teenage girls à la , a fellow shopper to help pick between a hairclip I’m keen to enter the room from the other door. with cupcakes and one with pink pastel butter- teenage girls a What about the girlifi cation of women? Why fl ies. All of us, including the three-year-old, thing of fetish. are grown women trying to dress like they’re gave the butterfl ies a nod (because cupcakes in 11? When did it become okay to do so? And your hair are plain weird), and I was about to As our female what does it say about us? ask who they were for, when the woman start- celebrities ed trying them on. She was wearing an amber FASHION’S PRINCESS MOMENT chiffon shirt and black trousers, and in my gen- get younger Sonam Kapoor, Amy Adams, Carrie Under- eral mapping seemed like someone who worked everyday, wood—women lauded for their red-carpet ap- in fi nance. I had no way of knowing she would ANINDITA pearances—often channel Disney princesses as Obe okay with pink butterfl ies—they shim- one of their many sartorial avatars. Labels like mered—fl uttering in her hair. GHOSE Marchesa and Oscar de la Renta routinely wow Now, I’m not a Grinch trying to steal pink. explores the rise us with ‘girly’ gowns, all froth and fl ounce. My I’m 31 and own trinkets featuring butterfl ies contention is not with what’s in your wardrobe, and porcelain teapots. I’m all for “be who you of Girl culture it’s about a collective fetishisation of the to- are” and “dress the way you wake up” and tems, symbols and motifs of girlhood. Our very

“work with a fashion magazine and not know language and discourse celebrates the young, > FOTOCORP GETTY IMAGES; MONTEIRO; LUIS

152 VOGUE INDIA MARCH  www.vogue.in in

most obviously demonstrated by the celebrities who successfully portray number of ‘Forever’ clothing brands the perma-girl phenomenon. in the market. Cultural theorists have panned the Nostalgia is an unavoidable thing: perma-boys, or the Peter Pan com- in art, literature, music, fashion. We plex, for years, but the perma-girl is a

are all disposed to idolise the past; to MOSCHINO real thing too: women in their mid- yearn for our childhood; to hold on to our twenties to early forties with no real youth. But there’s a breaking point. world responsibilities or concerns. You can- For many in the fashion world, that was not be a bore bothered about elderly care or a Moschino’s spring/summer 2015 show in Milan work deadline. You have to be footloose and last year. Two words: Barbie themed. “Hiya, carefree. The best examples are the reckless Barbie” played on loudspeakers as models in leads of Lena Dunham’s TV show—naturally, bubblegum-pink lipstick, shrunken fuchsia she titled it Girls. leather jackets and heart-shaped handbags There’s a Girl club and an elusive quality (and sunglasses) took to the aisles. This was es- that defi nes whether you can or cannot be a pecially prickly given the long-running debate part of it. Pop culture’s new Girls are all friends. on Barbie’s preposterous measurements. To Swift is best friends with Dunham, supermodel the credit of the fashion industry, there were Karlie Kloss and the other teenage singing sen- industry bigwigs who skipped the show alto- sation, Lorde (who released her chart-topping gether. I won’t blame it all on the plastic doll debut single at 17). These are all people who but the idea is that to wear those clothes you actively identify as Girls—Dunham’s bestsell- need to be relatively fl at-chested (yes, even Bar- ing debut book is called Not That Kind Of Girl. bie), have coltish legs, and possess a preternat- Hint: you need to be really cool to be part of the urally sunny disposition that agrees with syr- Girl club. It is as if to guard against ever being upy pink. In short, the idea is that you have to thrown out, that Madonna proclaimed herself be a Girl. the ‘Material’ Girl early on.

GIRL TALK MANISH ARORA AGE ISSUES Is Girl defi ned by age? Is it about whether The average age of our female celebrities—in she spends her days in a classroom or an movies, literature, music (especially music)—is offi ce? Is it about whether she’s left the coming down. Selena Gomez, Miley Cyrus, nest? In her movies, the characters Audrey Lorde, Taylor Swift: they might have set out to Hepburn played often lived with a father. sing for a teenage fan base but their following But she was unmistakably woman. Even as now includes a vast number of adult men and Blair Waldorf took on the reins of her moth- women who are worshipping them on red car- er’s fashion empire in Gossip Girl, she is pets and magazine covers. every bit girl. In a cover story on Swift last November, It’s hard to put a fi nger on who gets the Girl TIME magazine carried a chart on the num- tag and who doesn’t. It is not about money or ber of albums sold by age 25, and Swift—at power: Taylor Swift, that girl of all girls, report- 24.2 million—trumped artists like Usher edly bought a $19.9 million pair of penthouses and Beyoncé. Swift wears her age like a in ’s Tribeca area. It is not defi ned badge—apart from the fact that her latest by marriage or motherhood: new-age girl icons album is called 1989 (the year she was born)— like Blake Lively and Miranda Kerr have mar- literally; she is often spotted in a gold necklace ried incredibly young and embraced mother- that says “T.S. 1989”. While her achievements hood in their mid-twenties. On a relative scale, are enormous regardless, her gender and age Hepburn had her fi rst child at 31 and add a double edge to her success. She’s very Waheeda Rehman at 37. But undisput- aware. “I just struggle to fi nd a woman in mu- edly they ticked the ‘woman’ box in sic who hasn’t been completely picked apart their early twenties, maybe even by the media, or scrutinised and criticised for their late teens. ageing, or criticised for fi ghting ageing,” she is I believe a lot about being a quoted saying. “It just seems to be so much Girl is about self-identifi cation. An more diffi cult to be a woman in music and to increasing number of female celeb- grow older. I really just hope that I will choose rities are appropriating the G-word. to do it as gracefully as possible.” Would Zooey Deschanel’s New Girl We could worry about this. have the same ring if it were called New Or, we could be footloose and carefree, fl aunt Woman? In fact, Deschanel, 35, with her our pink butterfl ies, and go with the Beyoncé

cute fringe and polka dots, is one of those song: “Who run the world? Girls!” ■ MEDIA INDIGITAL

154 VOGUE INDIA MARCH  www.vogue.in